U.S. Pat. No. 6,592,856 issued Jul. 15, 2003 to Giles et al is typical of shampoo systems. It discloses: “Hair conditioning shampoo compositions are provided which contain a combination of conditioning agents including emulsified silicones, cationic polymers and certain fatty acid polyesters of polyols. Suitable fatty acid polyesters are sucrose pentalaurate, sucrose tetraoleate, sucrose pentaerucate, sucrose tetraerucate, sucrose tetrastearate, sucrose pentaoleate, sucrose octaoleate, sucrose pentatallowate, sucrose trirapeate, sucrose tetrarapeate, sucrose pentarapeate, sucrose tristearate and sucrose pentastearate, and mixtures thereof. The compositions give improved hair conditioning benefits, especially to hair, which has been damaged, e.g. through environmental exposure or harsh mechanical or chemical treatments such as heat styling, perming or bleaching.
There are a number of essential elements in the U.S. Pat. No. 6,592,856 product. The patent claims: “An aqueous shampoo composition comprising: i) at least one cleansing surfactant chosen from anionic, zwitterionic and amphoteric surfactants or mixtures thereof, and; ii) a combination of conditioning agents including: (a) emulsified particles of an insoluble silicone; and (b) a cationic polymer; and and (c) a fatty acid polyester of a polyol selected from the group consisting of sucrose pentaerucate, sucrose tetraerucate and mixtures thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,444,628 issued Sep. 3, 2002 to Nocerino, et al. discloses an “aqueous shampoo composition comprising, in addition to water an anionic cleansing surfactant, a cationic polymer, and a monoalkyl quaternary ammonium compound in which the alkyl chain length is C8 to C14. Again, the same type of formulation ingredients.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,221,817 issued Apr. 24, 2001 to Guskey, et al. discloses a “aqueous hair conditioning shampoo compositions comprising a specific surfactant component comprising an ethoxylated alkyl sulfate surfactant having from about 1 to about 8 moles of ethoxylation and an amphoteric surfactant in a shampoo with insoluble, dispersed conditioning agent, a low viscosity organic conditioning oil and a select soluble cellulosic cationic organic polymer hair conditioning agent”.
Common to each of these recently issued patents on conditioning shampoos is the multitude of essential ingredients needed to obtain cleansing, foam improvement and conditioning effects. The present invention provides conditioning shampoos with one surfactant ingredient having all of the attributes sought in these other inventions. The formulations of the art are both multi-component and complicated. This approach in fact teaches away from our very simplistic approach. The art generally teaches that more is better. That is the more ingredients added, the better the formulation as relates to conditioning, detergency, foam, antimicrobial and other desirable properties. What out invention teaches is that less is better. That less coming from one unique natural surfactant that provides all the needed benefits in a single molecule.